http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...s-lost-to-league/story-e6frext9-1111117097404
John Singleton's millions lost to league
By Paul Kent
The Daily Telegraph
August 04, 2008 12:00AM
GIVEN the apparent lack of French millionaires prepared to invest their hard earned in the NRL, it was time for a chat with the man that had the millions, if not the French.
My man Singo.
Three years ago John Singleton put $50 million on the table, picked a coach and found a football ground at a place where they were desperate to have rugby league.
Oh, the things he could have done. He even had Matt Orford ready to captain the team, the local boy done good.
But they knocked him back.
"They chose the Gold Coast, who had no ground and no money," Singo said, as the tinkle of a pool fountain sounded in the background.
"But you can't knock them, they've made it a success."
Singo is in Singapore working on a deal that will stuff another mattress full of hundred dollar bills.
He gets back today and will have a short holiday to recover before he is ready to get back to work on Saturday, when he goes to the races.
This is the life you imagine every millionaire lives.
Fanning themselves with a fistful of fifties, splashing money on thoroughbreds and bookmakers like it was raining confetti.
You want to buy a back-rower that can run a hundred in even time? he'd ask. Take it out of petty cash.
Alas, French millionaires come along only every so often, and it seems ours is currently in Singapore and no longer prepared to be jollied along.
How you can let money like this go is anyone's guess.
"I don't have any interest any longer," Singo said, as the distinct snap of a lotion bottle cracked in the background.
It must have been time for his footrub.
"After a while you become a fanatic. If long after the whistle blows you're still . . ." he paused, "someone else has to emerge."
And there has been some jockeying for that. Since Sonny Bill Williams revealed his finely tuned capitalist ear nine days ago the one beautiful point to emerge has been the number of people with a solution to fix it all.
If there was a thousand people asked, there was a thousand different solutions.
Warren Ryan, Ben Ikin, John Quayle, Andrew Johns, Brian Smith, Arthur Beetson, Matthew Johns, Peter Sterling, Grant Mayer, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Phil Gould, Cameron Smith, David Gallop, Peter FitzSimons, Wayne Beavis . . .
It's only when you consider the weight of those asked, and the vastly different solutions offered, that you begin to understand the weight of the NRL's problem.
It's not so much how do you fix it, but what do you fix?
As for my man Singo, he likes NRL chief executive David Gallop, says so a dozen times, but he reckons someone like Katie Page, already a standing NRL board member, would be the ideal leader for the game.
"She'd fix it in a week," he said, as the faint whisper of champagne bubbles popped in the background.
Singo must have had guests. He is strictly a beer man.
Yet what all these different opinions reveal are, that if rugby league has a strength, it is the depth of people that care.
You put all those people in a room for more than an hour and soon enough there will be blood on the walls, and several bodies at that, but they all share a love for rugby league that goes deeper than any hatred they harbour.
If only just.
Maybe that is the solution.
Several weeks back Stuart came out calling for a summit, while it is known here that, around that, a handful of coaches past and present have been talking about getting together and finding solutions for the game.
Their motivation is their undying love for rugby league. The NRL has mostly avoided the issue, keen to distance itself from any sign of panic while pointing to the end-of-season forums held annually, but something needs to be done outside what is being done.
The coaches forum at the end of the season is a waste of time, for one.
It takes just one coach to propose a decision that is to the advantage of his own team and suddenly the rest of them get defensive, and next thing they're hissing and spitting at each other.
And one coach always tries to push one through.
It might be time, among all this uncertainty and upheaval, to bring in an independent organisation to address the problems once and for all.
Give the game a clear plan ahead. Let them scour everything, and when the paper is handed in the judge's decision is final.
Short of a few French millionaires, it might be the best introduction the game can make.
As for my man Singo, he won't be back.
"I made that clear last time, here's a $50 million bank guarantee but I want it while I'm still young enough to enjoy it," he said, as the whoosh of silk sheets whispered in the background.
It must have been time for his afternoon nap.
Unfortunately, there's one rich millionaire that has slipped off the line.
The game can't afford any more. "You feel really insulted when you have got the ground and money and they still tell you to get f . . . . . ," he said.
Pardon his French, it was a stressful day.